C#7 Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukelele [C# Dominant 7th Chord] How to Play the C sharp

The C# dominant 7th chord (C#7) is built from a root note (C#), a major third (E#), a perfect fifth (G#) and a minor seventh (B):

C#7 chord [Musical explanation]

The C# dominant seventh chord is a tetrad with formula 1 – 3 – 5 – ♭7. Therefore, to build it we need C# (1), E# (3), G# (5) and B (♭7):

This is due to the fact that a dominant seventh chord is made up of 3 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the C#7 chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that a major seventh chord is defined by:

Root (C#) – Major Third (E#) – Perfect Fifth (G#) – Minor Seventh (B)

To sum up, in order to build the C#7 chord we need to add the minor seventh (7th) to the C# major chord.

C#7 Guitar Chord

The C#7 chord guitar has the following shape on the fretboard:

Let’s analyze in detail this chord diagram above to make sure that we understand how to play the C#7 on guitar. We will start by analyzing the 4 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 4 (D) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 2 (middle) and 4 (pinky). In this case we have a barre chord, so we have to use as well the index finger (1) to press down the strings from 5 to 1.

Note by the way the number 4 in black on the left that indicates on which fret we start playing the chord.

On the other hand, at the top we see that we have the characters:

X  C#  E#  B  C#  E#

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  ♭7  3 5

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the C#7 chord on guitar. But it is highly recommended to know it in order to understand the musical theory behind each chord.

Other ways to play the C# dominant 7 guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the C#7 chord in the following fretboard positions:

C#7 chord inversions

The 3 inversions of the C 7th chord are:

C#7 Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the C#7 uke chord diagram:

C#7 Piano Chord

To play the C#7 chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Third Inversión (C#7/B)

Music scales in which the C# minor 7th chord can be found

• F# major scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • F#maj7 G#m7 A#m7 Bmaj7 C#7 D#m7 E#m7♭5
• D# natural minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • D#m7 E#m7♭5 F#maj7 G#m7 A#m7 Bmaj7 C#7
• F# harmonic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • F#m(maj7) G#m7♭5 Amaj7#5 Bm7 C#7 Dmaj7 E#dim7
• G# melodic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • G#m(maj7) A#m7 Bmaj7#5 C#7 D#7 E#dim7 Gm7♭5
• F# melodic minor scale (armonizada por cuatríadas)
  • F#m(maj7) G#m7 Amaj7#5 B7 C#7 D#dim7 E#m7♭5

C#7 Chord PDF

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